Humanity of the Broken [ Band of Brothers ] 2

TWENTY-THREE

Alice sat at the end of her bed, eyes closed, head in her hands and elbows on her knees. Despite the painkillers from Spina, she'd been in pain for hours. Then she'd gotten some morphine. Now that had worn off, too. The last thing Alice wanted to deal with that day was a court-martial order. It had to be done, though. Cobb had gone too far with his slurs and threats, let alone his actions. Being drunk didn't excuse him from attacking her.

But after she'd pulled on everything, the thought of lacing up her jump boots just felt like too much work. She wanted to sleep. She wanted it to be over. She wanted the war to be over. Alice sat quietly, enjoying the deep breaths she could take for the first time in over a month. All she needed was some time.

A small knock on her door pulled Alice out of her self-pitying musings. For a moment, she debated ignoring it. Maybe whoever it was would go away. But when the knock came again, she sighed.

"Yeah I'm up," she called.

The door opened. Gene came in, shutting it behind himself when he saw her sitting at the edge of her bed. He looked her over. After half a minute, he moved over to her and angled her head so he could see the damage from the glass bottle. "Cobb did that?"

"Yeah." She didn't fight the gentle way he examined the wound. Occasionally she flinched back at his pressure on the reddened skin. "It hurts," she admitted.

Gene nodded. With a small hum, he finally met her gaze. "Yeah, I'll bet. He did a number on ya'. You gonna press charges?"

"Yeah."

"Good." Narrowing his eyes, he pushed some of her hair near her eye and temple back. He shook his head. "Another inch to the right and he'd have gotten your eye, cherie. Got lucky there."

All she could say was another half-hearted "yeah". Before long Gene had dug out some painkillers for her and she downed them with water from her canteen. He went on to explain that the half dozen smaller cuts would heal in no time, but the one across her cheek bone and the one over her brow would take longer. But, he assured her the already minor swelling would be gone in a day or two.

"Cobb'll be lucky if Speirs don't shoot him," Gene muttered.

But Alice just scoffed. While she pulled on her boots, she shook her head and countered, "Well Cobb'll be lucky if I don't shoot him."

"Guess that's true," he agreed with a small smile. "Come on. The officers'll wanna see you."

With a tiny groan, she nodded. They were part of the reason she hid in her room. She could already predict their reactions. Not that it didn't flatter her, their inevitable desire to kill Cobb, but she didn't have the energy to deal with Ron and Nixon getting pissed off when she herself already felt the same way.

She allowed Gene to haul her off her bed. Her watch read 1530 hours. Alice realized she'd slept all day. With a silent sigh, she grabbed the door handle and opened it. The hallway from her bedroom led straight into the main area and it surprised her to find it mostly empty except for Lipton and George. The former sat on the couch again, looking better. He drank what she assumed was coffee while George sat opposite him on a chair looking over a clipboard, cigarette hanging from his mouth.

Lipton looked over at her first. But at his long glance, George followed his gaze. He took out his cigarette and shook his head. "Jesus Christ. Cobb did that?"

"Last night," she affirmed. "He was drunk."

After a sigh, Lipton shook his head. "He better have been. Not that it makes it any better."

"I mean Cobb ain't the nicest but never thought he'd attack you," George added.

"Doc, how bad is it?" asked Lipton.